No one knows whether Montreal’s big summer festivals are going to happen this year.

Many major international music festivals and concert tours have been postponed or cancelled because of the COVID-19 crisis, and Evenko — Quebec’s leading concert promoter — announced March 13 it was cancelling all of its shows for the next 30 days.

But will the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Just For Laughs and Osheaga take place as usual? Industry insiders say it’s simply too early to tell.

“Everyone is on pause,” said Laurent Saulnier, vice-president of programming at L’Équipe Spectra, which runs the jazz fest and Les Francos de Montréal

“We’re just waiting to see when things will change in terms of people having to be confined to their homes and not being allowed to congregate.”

Les Francos is supposed to run June 12-21 and the jazz fest is June 25-July 4. Osheaga is skedded for July 31-Aug. 2.

Live-event companies are laying off large portions of their workforces as a result of the COVID-19 cancellations. On Thursday, the Just For Laughs Group, which runs the English-language festival and its francophone counterpart, Juste Pour Rire, laid off 75 per cent of its employees.

Just For Laughs could not be reached for comment, and in a statement did not reveal how many people were being laid off.

“As we are faced with the global situation evolving so quickly, it continues to have profound effect on our industry and our business,” president Charles Décarie said in a statement. “As such, we have had to take all necessary measures to stabilize our situation and ensure the sustainability of our business activities.”

On Tuesday, Groupe CH — which owns the Montreal Canadiens, Evenko and L’Équipe Spectra — announced it was laying off 60 per cent of its staff.

Last week, Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil gave pink slips to 95 per cent of its employees following the cancellation of all of its shows around the world.

The majority of tours scheduled for March, April and May have been cancelled or postponed, but many of the summer tours are still set to go — in theory.

Foo Fighters have postponed a bunch of spring dates, and Bon Iver and Harry Styles have pushed spring 2020 dates in Europe into 2021.

Céline Dion has postponed the March and April dates of her Courage world tour.

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, which was set to happen June 11-14, has been rescheduled for Sept. 24-27.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the major Californian music fest set to take place in April, has been pushed back to October.

Promoters not only don’t know when government regulations will change, but also what the mood of the public will be once the stay-at-home rules and quarantine measures are lifted.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Saulnier said. “People are going to have a real hunger to go out. They’ll have been stuck in their houses for weeks and weeks. So to go out and see people, to have a few beers, that’ll be something they’ve been waiting weeks for.

“But the other side of the coin is people are beginning to live in a world of social distancing. So what will be the impact of that in the coming months and years? Your guess is as good as mine. I just know that there are some places where it will be impossible to maintain social distancing. In any cinema or theatre, you won’t be able to have that kind of distance between people.”

Spectra and Evenko have already cancelled dozens of shows.

“Festivals in April and May are already completely cancelled and June is probably next, and no one is rescheduling anything until September,” said Dan Seligman, creative director at the POP Montreal music festival, which is set to run Sept. 23-27.

“Everyone has to wait for directives from the authorities,” Seligman said. “Also the border is closed. As of right now, given the current protocols and laws, nothing is happening. Will those get lifted in May? I feel like it’s too early to say 100 per cent about anything.”

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